Beauty, Wellness Merchants Get Smart Digital Payments Makeover

The beauty and wellness industry has been one of the most affected by the accelerated digital transformation accompanying the pandemic. Even as consumers return to spas, health clubs, salons and other in-person beauty and wellness services, concerns still made concessions such as contactless payments essential. What began with efforts to address health and safety concerns has now evolved into easier and more convenient options for customers that also give merchants added insights and smarter marketing solutions.

Along with improved digital engagement, both online and in-person, beauty and wellness merchants have also leveraged powerful tools for better understanding and serving clients. By tapping into the potential of customers’ own mobile devices, merchants can upsell services and products and engage more easily with customers.

In the “Beauty And Wellness Digital Payments Tracker®,” PYMNTS explores how digital payment solutions have opened new opportunities to the beauty and wellness industry and why the potential for better engagement with lower friction is only growing.

Around the Beauty and Wellness Payments Space

As with many industries, cryptocurrency has found a place in beauty and wellness. Retailers such as The Fragrance Shop are starting to offer payment options that include crypto, as well as other digital payment solutions. The decision by The Fragrance Shop to add crypto to its payment options came after careful observation of its evolving role in eCommerce, said CEO Sanjay Vadera. Vadera believes crypto has the potential to transform beauty and wellness through faster, more secure and less expensive payments. In addition to other brands such as Lush embracing crypto as a payment option, some cosmetic surgeons have started accepting crypto payments as well.

Major beauty retailer Sephora is advancing efforts to make the online shopping experience more like the one found in its physical stores while also applying digital improvements to the in-store customer experience. Sephora CTO Sree Sreedhararaj said that beauty and wellness customers are looking for an experience more than a transaction, regardless of whether they are shopping online or in-person. Personalization and live advice from a real person are just as important to online customers as those who come into a store. The goal is to have a seamless, multichannel customer experience that would bring back both in-person and online customers.

For more on these stories and other developments, check out the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

Vagaro on Giving Beauty and Wellness Payments a Digital Makeover

The pandemic challenged few industries more than beauty and wellness, but adaptations to the health crisis also spurred digital advancements in payments and customer experiences that are here to stay.

In this month’s Feature Story, Fred Helou, CEO and founder of software-as-a-service platform Vagaro, talks about simplifying payments, creating a digital beauty and wellness marketplace and transforming the customer experience with automated marketing tools and QR code checkouts.

PYMNTS Intelligence: Lowering Barriers in the Beauty and Wellness Customer Experience

While facing significant challenges during the pandemic, the beauty and wellness industry has been one of the most successful in adapting. More and more, consumers are looking online for their beauty and wellness purchases, with 12% saying they did so more in 2021 than they did at the start of the pandemic in 2020. That makes staying at the forefront of digital trends and capabilities essential for merchants in an industry where much of their competition already embraces advancements such as live online assistance and product recommendations powered by smart algorithms.

This month’s PYMNTS Intelligence takes a look at how digital payment solutions and accompanying digital advancements have reshaped the beauty and wellness industry and the importance to merchants of keeping up.

About the Tracker

The “Beauty and Wellness Digital Payments Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration, examines the latest trends and developments shaping the beauty and wellness digital payments space and how advancements in digital payments and customer experiences have given the industry a permanent makeover.